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Coloradans bring power and hope to Ukraine through converted solar panels

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by Carly Rose, Julio Sandoval • Published on • Last modified on
News | Rocky Mountain PBS

BOULDER, Colo. — Armed with solar panels and paint pens, a room of volunteers took providing aid to Ukraine into their own hands. 

Volunteers of all ages connected portable car chargers to low-cost solar panels, creating solar-powered USB chargers to send to Ukrainians who face unreliable electricity and power outages due to the ongoing war with Russia. With these devices, Ukrainians can charge their mobile devices and stay connected with loved ones and emergency alerts.  

This is the fourth event of its kind held at Fairview High School in Boulder in the last year. Andrew Lenec, an advocate for Ukraine, has helped organize each event.  

Lenec and this group have sent more than 100 solar panels to Ukraine. As the war in Ukraine continues, so do Lenec’s efforts to provide support from halfway across the world. 

Colorado Voices
Coloradans send solar panels to Ukraine

“It's my duty to support Ukraine,” Lenec said. “But it's the duty of every human being also to support a country that is fighting a proxy war for democracy, for freedom, for self-determination.” 

The son of Ukrainian political refugees, Lenec grew up entrenched in Ukrainian culture and eventually served in the Peace Corps in Ukraine. He uses his strong relationships with people living in Ukraine to effectively distribute aid.  

He also creates opportunities for people in Colorado to connect with the people living through the crisis. 

Before they got to work on the panels, the volunteers gathered around a large projector screen, waiting for a video call to connect. The screen lit up with a patchwork of faces. The volunteers waved hello to the dozen Ukrainians smiling back at them. 

Calling from the village of Maiakî near the southern coast of Ukraine, this group of students and adults represented the community of Ukrainians who have received converted solar panels from these volunteer events. 

On the call, students, around the same age as the high schoolers volunteering, shared a presentation about how the panels have helped their community and the Ukrainian military effort. They’ve used the solar panels at schools, hospitals and military camps.  

“Thank you, friends, for helping our country in this way,” the Ukranian students said as they concluded their presentation. “We are grateful to everyone who stands next to us. We want to live, study and work in a peaceful, free country.” 

Hosting a video call with impacted Ukrainians has become a fixture of these solar panel events. Volunteer Anton Buynovskiy was born in Ukraine and moved to the United States when he was two years old. He said it’s important to see and hear from the people experiencing the conflict firsthand. 

“I think a lot of things that people sort of misinterpret is that Ukrainians might not be grateful for this,” said Buynovskiy, a doctoral student at University of Colorado Boulder. “But every Ukrainian I talked to, the first thing they always try to recognize is that they really appreciate all of the support that they get.” 

The technical process of converting the solar panels is only one part of the work. Many of the volunteers spent most of their time painting the backs of the panels with colorful drawings and messages of support, in English and Ukrainian.  

Filer image
Filer image

Lenec said the messages on the panels are almost more important than the resource of the panels themselves. 

“When they hear from Americans, when they get these solar panels, they realize that there is indeed support, that the world has not forgotten about Ukraine,” Lenec said. 

Seventh-grader Emmie Szameitat has attended all the solar panel conversion projects. Her father, Peter Szameitat, is a science teacher at Fairview who helps organize the events.  

On the panels, Emmie likes to draw sunflowers with yellow and blue to represent the Ukrainian flag. She wrote messages in English and Ukranian to encourage the people who receive her colorful panels. 

“I hope that they just know that they have to stay strong, and they will get through this with the help of us,” Emmie said.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the United States has provided about $77 billion in total aid for Ukraine. As the war goes on, some representatives in Congress have grown weary of continued government spending on support for Ukraine.  

Congress has not passed the Biden administration’s most recent request for $24 billion in additional aid for Ukraine. Any decision on financial aid for Ukraine is on hold until the House of Representatives elects a new Speaker, after representatives voted to remove former speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican. 

Lenec is worried about the waning government support for Ukraine. He argued that aiding the people of Ukraine is a humanitarian issue, not a partisan issue. 

“That's probably one of the most important things is that people educate themselves about what's going on,” Lenec said. “Refrain from politicizing it and advocate that we as a culture, as a society, deserve to support people who want nothing more than freedom.” 

Organizing or attending grassroots events like this are one way people who want to continue supporting Ukraine can make a direct impact, Lenec said. Peter Szameitat, who helped organize the event, said community fundraising helped cover the cost of the solar panels.  

Szameitat and event organizers partnered with the nonprofit Sunflower Seeds Ukraine to ship the panels to Ukraine. The nonprofit’s existing transportation network helped lower the cost of sending the panels. 

Anton Buynovskiy has attended all the solar panel conversion events held at Fairview. Over the past couple of years, Buynovskiy said he’s gained a strong sense of Ukrainian pride. He never expected the world would have such a focus on Ukraine. He hopes that the world holds that focus. 

“We chose the side,” Buynovskiy said. “We chose to support democracy. We chose to support the Ukrainian people. We can't just put a half effort and then just assume everything else is going to be fine.”

Carly Rose is the journalism intern at Rocky Mountain PBS and can be reached at carlyrose@rmpbs.org.

Julio Sandoval is a senior photojournalist at Rocky Mountain PBS and can be reached at juliosandoval@rmpbs.org.

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